Feeder cable reduction

ABSTRACT

The present invention allows transmission of multiple signals between masthead electronics and base housing electronics in a base station environment. At least some of the received signals from the multiple antennas are translated to being centered about different center frequencies, such that the translated signals may be combined into a composite signal including each of the received signals. The composite signal is then sent over a single feeder cable to base housing electronics, wherein the received signals are separated and processed by transceiver circuitry. Prior to being provided to the transceiver circuitry, those signals that were translated from being centered about one frequency to another may be retranslated to being centered about the original center frequency.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to radio frequency communications, and inparticular to translating signals received at one frequency frommultiple antennas to being centered about different frequencies, andcombining these signals for delivery over a common antenna feeder cable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In cellular communication environments, the electronics used tofacilitate receiving and transmitting signals is distributed between abase housing and a masthead, which is mounted atop a building, tower, orlike mast structure. The actual antennas used for transmitting andreceiving signals are associated with the masthead. The masthead willgenerally include basic electronics to couple the antennas tocorresponding antenna feeder cables, which connect to transceiver andamplifier electronics located in the base housing.

Historically, the amount of electronics placed in the masthead has beenminimized, due to inhospitable environmental conditions, such aslightning, wind, precipitation, and temperature extremes, along with thedifficulty in replacing the electronics when failures occur. Maintenanceof the masthead is time-consuming and dangerous, given the location ofthe masthead. Minimizing the electronics in the masthead has resulted inessentially each antenna being associated with a separate antenna feedercable.

As time progressed, the cost of the electronics has been greatlyreduced, whereas the cost of the antenna feeder cables has heldrelatively constant, if not increased. Thus, a decade ago the antennafeeder cables were an insignificant cost associated with a base stationenvironment, whereas today the cost of the antenna feeder cables is asignificant portion of the cost associated with the base stationenvironment. Accordingly, there is a need to minimize the number ofantenna feeder cables associated with a base station environment,without impacting the functionality or operability of the base stationenvironment. Further, there is a need to minimize the increase in costassociated with the masthead and base housing electronics due tominimizing the number of antenna feeder cables required to connect themasthead electronics to the base housing electronics.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention allows transmission of multiple signals betweenmasthead electronics and base housing electronics in a base stationenvironment. At least some of the received signals from the multipleantennas are translated to being centered about different centerfrequencies, such that the translated signals may be combined into acomposite signal including each of the received signals. The compositesignal is then sent over a single feeder cable to base housingelectronics, wherein the received signals are separated and processed bytransceiver circuitry. Prior to being provided to the transceivercircuitry, those signals that were translated from being centered aboutone frequency to another may be retranslated to being centered about theoriginal center frequency. In one embodiment, the multiple antennasrepresent main and diversity antennas. In such an embodiment, thereceived signals from the diversity antenna(s) may be translated andcombined with the signal received from the main antenna. The receivesignal from the main antenna may or may not be translated prior tocombining with the translated signals from the diversity antenna(s). Thepresent invention is applicable in single mode and multi-modeenvironments. It is also applicable to systems which use four branchreceive diversity. Future systems such as MIMO which may use twotransmit signals and four receive signals per sector will also greatlybenefit from this invention. In essence this invention can be leveragedin any deployment scenario where there are more receive signals thantransmit signals.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentinvention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of the invention, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a block representation of a base station environment accordingto one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block representation of base housing electronics andmasthead electronics according to a first embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a graphical illustration of a frequency translation processaccording to the embodiment of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a block representation of base housing electronics andmasthead electronics according to a second embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a graphical illustration of a frequency translation processaccording to the embodiment of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a block representation of base housing electronics andmasthead electronics according to a third embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustratethe best mode of practicing the invention. Upon reading the followingdescription in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilledin the art will understand the concepts of the invention and willrecognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressedherein. It should be understood that these concepts and applicationsfall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.

The present invention facilitates the reduction of cabling required in abase station environment. In general, signals that were normallytransmitted over separate cables are frequency shifted about differentcenter frequencies, combined, and sent over a single cable. At areceiving end of the cable, the combined signals are recovered andprocessed in traditional fashion. The invention is particularly usefulin a diversity environment, wherein multiple antennas are used toreceive a common signal. In such an environment, certain of the signalsreceived from the main and diversity antennas are shifted in frequency,combined with one another, and transmitted over a common cable.Accordingly, each sector, which includes a main and one or morediversity antennas, will need only one cable for transmitting thereceived signals from the antennas to electronics in a base housing.

Prior to delving into the details of the present invention, an overviewof a base station environment 10 is illustrated in FIG. 1 according toone embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated base stationenvironment 10 is exemplary of the primary components in a cellularaccess network. A base housing 12 is provided in a secure location inassociation with a mast 14, which may be a tower or other structure nearthe top of which is mounted a masthead 16. Communications for the basestation environment 10 are distributed between the masthead 16 and thebase housing 12. In particular, the base housing 12 will include basehousing electronics 18, which include the primary transceiver and poweramplification circuitry required for cellular communications. Themasthead 16 will include masthead electronics 20, which generallycomprise the limited amount of electronics necessary to operativelyconnect with multiple antennas 22, which are mounted on the masthead 16.The masthead electronics 20 and the base housing electronics 18 arecoupled together with one or more feeder cables 24. For the illustratedembodiment, there are six antennas 22 divided into three sectors havingtwo antennas 22 each. For each sector, one feeder cable 24 is providedbetween the masthead electronics 20 and the base housing electronics 18.Accordingly, there are three feeder cables 24 illustrated in FIG. 1. Intraditional base station environments 10, each antenna would beassociated with one feeder cable 24.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a block representation of the base housingelectronics 18 and one sector of the masthead electronics 20 is providedaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. Notably, there aretwo antennas 22 illustrated. A first antenna is referred to as a mainantenna 22M, and the second antennas is referred to as a diversityantenna 22D. For signals transmitted from the main antenna 22M, a signalto be transmitted will be provided over the feeder cable 24 to aduplexer 26 in the masthead electronics 20. The signal to be transmitted(MAIN TX) is sent to another duplexer 28 and transmitted via the mainantenna 22M.

For receiving, signals transmitted from remote devices will be receivedat both the main antenna 22M and the diversity antenna 22D. The signalsreceived at the main antenna 22M are referred to as the main receivesignals (MAIN RX), and the signals received at the diversity antenna 22Dare referred to as the diversity receive signals (DIVERSITY RX). Inoperation, the main receive signal received at the main antenna 22M isrouted by the duplexer 28 to a low noise amplifier (LNA) 30, which willamplify the main receive signal and present it to main frequencytranslation circuitry 32. The main frequency translation circuitry 32will effect a frequency translation, which is essentially a shift of themain receive signal from being centered about a first center frequencyto being centered around a second center frequency. The main frequencytranslation circuitry 32 may take the form of a mixer, serrodyne, or thelike, which is capable of shifting the center frequency of the mainreceive signal.

Similarly, the diversity receive signal received at the diversityantenna 22D may be filtered via a filter 34 and amplified using an LNA36 before being presented to diversity frequency translation circuitry38. The diversity frequency translation circuitry 38 will effect afrequency translation of the diversity receive signal from beingcentered about the first center frequency to being centered about athird center frequency. Preferably, the first, second, and third centerfrequencies are sufficiently different as to allow signals beingtransmitted or received at those frequencies to be combined withoutinterfering with one another.

With reference to FIG. 3, a graphical illustration of the frequencytranslation process is provided. As illustrated, the main and diversityreceive signals are centered about the first center frequency f_(C1),wherein the translated main receive signal is centered about centerfrequency f_(C2) and the translated diversity receive signal is centeredabout center frequency f_(C3). The center frequencies are sufficientlyspaced along the frequency continuum to avoid any interference betweenthe signals transmitted on those center frequencies.

Returning to FIG. 2, the translated main receive signal and thetranslated diversity receive signal provided by the main and diversityfrequency translation circuitries 32 and 38 are then combined withcombining circuitry 40 and presented to the duplexer 26. The duplexer 26will then transmit the composite signal to the base housing electronics18.

The composite signal will be received by a duplexer 40 and provided toseparation circuitry 42, which will effectively separate the translatedmain receive signal and the translated diversity receive signal andprovide them to main frequency translation circuitry 44 and diversityfrequency translation circuitry 46, respectively. The translated mainand diversity receive signals will be shifted back to being centeredabout the first center frequency f_(C1), which was originally used fortransmitting the main and diversity receive signals from the remotedevice. Accordingly, the main and diversity receive signals arerecovered by the main and diversity frequency translation circuitries 44and 46 and provided to transceiver circuitry 48, wherein the receivesignals are processed in traditional fashion and forwarded to a mobileswitching center (MSC) or other device via an MSC interface 50.

For transmitted signals, the base housing electronics 18 will generate amain transmit signal (MAIN TX) using the transceiver circuitry 48 andprovide the main transmit signal to a power amplifier (PA) 52. Theamplified main transmit signal will then be transmitted to the duplexer40, which will send the amplifier main transmit signal over the feedercable 24 toward the masthead electronics 20, which will route the maintransmit signal to the main antenna 22M as described above.

The previous embodiment is configured to minimize the impact on theexisting transceiver circuitry 48 in the base housing electronics 18. Inan alternative embodiment, the translated main and diversity receivesignals may be presented directly to the transceiver circuitry 48, whichmay be modified to be able to process the signals directly, instead ofrequiring them to be translated back to being centered about theiroriginal center frequency, f_(C1). Further, the receive signals that aretranslated may be shifted up or down in frequency to varying degrees.For example, the receive signals may be shifted down to an intermediatefrequency, to a very low intermediate frequency, or to a near DCfrequency, such as that used in Zero IF architectures.

Although not shown, power may be fed from the base housing electronics18 to the masthead Electronics 20 via the antenna feeder. Power would becoupled to the feeder cable 24 and off of the feeder cable 24 using aconventional Bias-T as is typically done for masthead electronics 20.Furthermore, a communication link between the base housing electronics18 and masthead electronics 20 may also be desirable and implemented.The communication link could be implemented at baseband or at an RFfrequency other than those frequencies of interest to the wirelessoperator, using a low power RF transceiver.

Furthermore, if it is desirable to control the frequency translation toa high level of precision, a local oscillator (LO) signal in the form ofa sine wave could be fed up the feeder cable 24 from the base housingelectronics 18 and be extracted by the masthead electronics 20. The LOsignal could be a sine wave in the range of 100 to 200 MHz to facilitateseparation from the RX and TX signals.

Redundancy is often an issue for the masthead electronics 20. It istherefore desirable that a minimum amount of functionality be maintainedin the event of a hardware failure with either the LNAs or frequencytranslation circuitry. It would therefore be advantageous in both themain and diversity receive paths be equipped with frequency translationcircuitry. If one frequency translation circuit 32 should fail, the mainsignal would pass through the redundant circuitry unshifted and remainat its original frequency. In such an event the main receive signalcould propagate downwards to the base housing electronics 18 at itsoriginal RF frequency and the diversity receive signal would continue tobe propagated as described.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a second embodiment of the present invention isillustrated. In this embodiment, the main receive signal is nottranslated, while the diversity receive signal is translated. Thus, themain receive signal and a translated diversity receive signal arecombined in the masthead electronics 20 and sent over the feeder cable24 to the base housing electronics 18. In particular, the main receivesignal is received at main antenna 22M, and forwarded to combiningcircuitry 40 via the duplexer 28, and through an LNA 30. The diversityreceive signal is received at diversity antenna 22D, filtered by thefilter 34, amplified by the LNA 36, and translated from the first centerfrequency f_(C1) to a second center frequency f_(C2) by the diversityfrequency translation circuitry 38. The main receive signal and thetranslated diversity receive signal are combined by combining circuitry40 and sent to duplexer 26 for delivery to the base housing electronics18 over the feeder cable 24. Upon receipt, the duplexer 40 at the basehousing electronics 18 will send a composite receive signal to theseparation circuitry 42, which will provide the main receive signal tothe transceiver circuitry 48, and the translated diversity receivesignal to the diversity frequency translation circuitry 46, which willtranslate the translated diversity receive signal back to being centeredabout center frequency f_(C1) to effectively recover the diversityreceive signal, which is then provided to the transceiver circuitry 48for processing. The main transmit signal is transmitted from the mainantenna 22M as described in association with FIG. 2.

With reference to FIG. 5, a graphical illustration of the translation ofthe diversity receive signal is shown, as processed in the embodiment ofFIG. 4. As illustrated, the translated diversity receive signal isshifted to be centered about center frequency f_(C2), wherein both themain and the original diversity receive signals are centered aboutcenter frequency f_(C1).

If a masthead LNA is not desired or needed for the main receive signal,the invention can be further simplified by removing the LNA 30 andDuplexer 28 and combining circuitry 40. In such a case, both thetransmit and main receive signals can be fed directly to the duplexer26, where they will be combined with a translated diversity receivesignal. The duplexer 26 would be designed such that the main filterencompass both the main transmit and main receive frequencies, and theother filter would encompass a shifted diversity receive frequency. Thisimplementation would provide a simpler and less costly module whileminimizing transmit path loss.

The advantages of this embodiment are twofold. Firstly, the main receivepath can be composed of only passive components, thereby improvingreliability. Alternatively, if an LNA 30 is desired at the masthead 16for both the main and diversity receive signals, this embodiment remainssimpler since only the diversity receive frequency needs to betranslated at the mast, simplifying the electronics and frequency plan.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a multi-band implementation of the presentinvention is illustrated. A multi-band communication environment is onein which the same or different cellular communication techniques aresupported by a base station environment 10. As illustrated, a singlebase housing 12 is used, but different base housings 12 may be used forthe different frequency bands. In many instances, the different modes ofcommunication, whether incorporating the same or different underlyingcommunication technologies, are centered about different centerfrequencies. Two common frequencies about which cellular communicationsare centered are 800 MHz and 1900 MHz. Accordingly, the base stationenvironment 10 must be able to transmit and receive signals at both 800MHz and 1900 MHz, and may require diversity antennas 22D to assist inreceiving signals. In operation, received signals in the 800 or 1900 MHzbands (BAND 1 and BAND 2, respectively) may be received at diversityantenna 22D, wherein a duplexer 54 will send 800 MHz receive signals(800 RXD) through LNA 56 to BAND 1 frequency translation circuitry 58,which will translate the 800 MHz receive signal about a different centerfrequency. In this example, assume the BAND 1 frequency translationcircuitry downconverts the 800 MHz receive signal to a firstintermediate frequency (IF₁), wherein the downconverted signal isgenerally referred to as 800 RXD @ IF₁. Similarly, 1900 MHz receivesignals (1900 RXD) will be provided through LNA 60 to BAND 2 frequencytranslation circuitry 62, which will downconvert the 1900 MHz receivesignal to a second intermediate frequency (IF₂), wherein thedownconverted signal is represented as 1900 RXD @ IF₂.

The 800 RXD @ IF₁ and 1900 RXD @ IF₂ signals are combined usingcombining circuitry 64 to form a composite signal IF₁+IF₂, which isprovided to combining circuitry 26′, which will combine the compositesignal IF₁+IF₂ with any signals received at the main antenna 22M, and inparticular, 800 MHz and 1900 MHz receive signals (800 RX and 1900 RX).Thus, the combining circuitry 26′ may combine the 800 and 1900 MHzreceive signals with the composite IF₁+IF₂ signal and present them overthe feeder cable 24 to separation circuitry 42 provided in the basehousing electronics 18. The separation circuitry 42 will provide the 800and 1900 MHz signals to the transceiver circuitry 48, as well as sendthe 800 RXD @ IF₁ and 1900 RXD @ IF₂ (translated) signals to respectiveBAND 1 and BAND 2 frequency translation circuitry 66 and 68. The BAND 1frequency translation circuitry 66 may upconvert the 800 RXD @ IF₁signal to recover the original 800 RXD signal, and the BAND 2 frequencytranslation circuitry 68 will process the 1900 RXD @ IF₂ signal torecover the original 1900 RXD signal. The 800 RXD and 1900 RXD signalsare then provided to the transceiver circuitry 48 for processing intraditional fashion. As noted for the previous embodiment, thetransceiver circuitry 48 may be modified to process the downconverted orotherwise translated signals without requiring retranslations back tothe original center frequencies, as provided by the BAND 1 and BAND 2frequency translation circuitry 66 and 68.

Accordingly, the present invention provides for translating signals fromone or more antennas 22 in a base station environment 10 in a mannerallowing the translated signals to be combined with one another andother untranslated signals for transmission over a common antenna feeder24. The present invention is applicable to single and multi-bandcommunication environments, and is not limited to communicationtechnologies or particular operating frequencies. In general, thetranslation of received signals need only operate such that when thesignals are combined with other signals, there is no interference or theinterference is otherwise minimal or manageable. Further, the receivesignals may be from any spatially diverse array of antennas for one ormore sectors.

As noted, two base housings 12 that operate in different bands may sharethe same feeder cables 24 and masthead 16.

Redundancy is a key issue for masthead electronics 20. Active componentswhich are used in the LNA 30 and frequency translation circuitry 32, 38are less reliable than passive components used to implement theduplexers 26, combining circuitry 40, and filters 34. As such, it may benecessary to bypass the LNAs 30 within the module. An LNA bypass isstandard practice for masthead LNAs 30.

More important is redundancy in the frequency translation circuitry 32,38. Since the objective is to transmit two receive signals, main anddiversity, down the same antenna feeder 24 to the base housingelectronics 18, loss of the frequency translation function means thatonly one of the receive signals can be relayed to the base housingelectronics 18. It is therefore important to consider redundancy schemesin practice.

One approach is to simply include multiple levels of redundancy withineach circuit block. A more sophisticated scheme would be to further usefrequency translation circuitry on both the main receive and diversityreceive signals as shown in FIG. 2. However, the frequency translationcircuitry 32, 38 should be designed as to allow a signal to pass throughwith relatively little attenuation in the event of a hardware failure.Such would be the case with a serrodyne implemented using exclusivelyshunt or reflection type switches. The combining circuitry 40 could bedesigned to accept a signal at the translated receive frequency ororiginal receive frequency on either port. The frequency translationcircuitry 32, 38 would only be used in one branch at any given time, andin the other branch the signal would be passed through the frequencytranslation circuitry with little or no effect. In the event that theactive frequency translation circuitry 32, 38 should fail, the unusedfrequency translation circuitry 32, 38 could be turned on to implementthe frequency translation on this branch, and the failed frequencytranslation circuitry 32, 38 would then allow the signal to pass throughuntranslated.

Finally, in cases where four-branch receive diversity is used, it isconceivable that each sector contain one transmit signal and fourreceive signals. In such a case the present invention could easily beexpanded to translate the frequency of all receive signals oralternately on the three diversity receive signals to separatefrequencies and combine them all onto one feeder cable 24 where theywould be separated by another circuit at the base station housing 12.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the preferred embodiments of the present invention. All suchimprovements and modifications are considered within the scope of theconcepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

1. A method for combining signals for transmission between mastheadelectronics and base housing electronics in a base station environment,the method comprising: a) receiving a first receive signal centeredabout a first center frequency from a first antenna; b) receiving asecond receive signal that is different from the first receive signaland centered about the first center frequency from a second antenna; c)translating the first receive signal from the first antenna to beingcentered about a second center frequency; and d) combining the firstreceive signal centered about the second center frequency and the secondreceive signal to form a composite signal, which is sent to the basehousing electronics over a feeder cable.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein the first receive signal centered about the second centerfrequency is combined with the second receive signal centered about thefirst center frequency to form the composite signal.
 3. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the first center frequency and the second centerfrequency are sufficiently spread to minimize interference between thefirst and second receive signals in the composite signal.
 4. The methodof claim 1 further comprising translating the second receive signal fromthe second antenna to being centered about a third center frequency,wherein the first receive signal centered about the second centerfrequency is combined with the second receive signal centered about thethird center frequency to form the composite signal.
 5. The method ofclaim 4 wherein the second center frequency and the third centerfrequency are sufficiently spread to minimize interference between thefirst and second receive signals in the composite signal.
 6. The methodof claim 1 wherein the second antenna is a main antenna also used totransmit signals centered about the first center frequency and the firstantenna is a diversity antenna associated with the second antenna, themethod further comprising transmitting a transmit signal via the mainantenna.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein a plurality of receivesignals, including the second receive signal, are received andtranslated to being centered about different center frequencies andcombined to form the composite signal.
 8. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: a) separating the first and second receive signals from thecomposite signal in the base station electronics; and b) providing thefirst and second receive signals to transceiver circuitry.
 9. The methodof claim 8 further comprising translating the first receive signal tobeing centered about the first center frequency prior to providing thefirst receive signal to the transceiver circuitry.
 10. The method ofclaim 9 wherein the second receive signal is translated to a thirdcenter frequency before being combined with the first receive signal toform the composite signal, and further comprising translating the secondreceive signal to being centered about the first center frequency priorto providing the second receive signal to the transceiver circuitry. 11.The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second receive signalscorrespond to a cellular signal transmitted from a cellularcommunication device.
 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the first andsecond antennas are associated with one of a plurality of sectors forthe base station environment.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein eachsector uses one feeder cable between the masthead electronics and thebase housing electronics.
 14. The method of claim 1 wherein the firstcenter frequency is associated with a first cellular band and a fourthcenter frequency is associated a second cellular band, the methodfurther comprising: a) receiving a third receive signal centered about athird center frequency from the first antenna; b) receiving a fourthreceive signal centered about the third center frequency from the secondantenna; c) translating the third receive signal from the first antennato being centered about a fourth center frequency; and d) combining thethird receive signal centered about the third center frequency and thesecond receive signal to form at least part of the composite signal,which is sent to the base housing electronics over the feeder cable. 15.The method of claim 14 further comprising translating the fourth receivesignal from the second antenna to being centered about the fourth centerfrequency, wherein the third receive signal centered about the fourthcenter frequency is combined with the fourth receive signal centeredabout the fourth center frequency to form at least part of the compositesignal.
 16. Base station electronics for combining signals fortransmission between a masthead and a base housing in a base stationenvironment, the base station electronics comprising in the masthead: a)a first input adapted to receive a first receive signal centered about afirst center frequency from a first antenna; b) a second input adaptedto receive a second receive signal that is different from the firstreceive signal and centered about the first center frequency from asecond antenna; c) first translation circuitry adapted to translate thefirst receive signal from the first antenna to being centered about asecond center frequency; and d) combining circuitry adapted to combinethe first receive signal centered about the second center frequency andthe second receive signal to form a composite signal, which is sent tobase housing electronics over a feeder cable.
 17. The base stationelectronics of claim 16 wherein the first receive signal centered aboutthe second center frequency is combined with the second receive signalcentered about the first center frequency to form the composite signal.18. The base station electronics of claim 17 wherein the first centerfrequency and the second center frequency are sufficiently spread tominimize interference between the first and second receive signals inthe composite signal.
 19. The base station electronics of claim 16further comprising second translation circuitry adapted to translate thesecond receive signal from the second antenna to being centered about athird center frequency, wherein the first receive signal centered aboutthe second center frequency is combined with the second receive signalcentered about the third center frequency to form the composite signal.20. The base station electronics of claim 19 wherein the second centerfrequency and the third center frequency are sufficiently spread tominimize interference between the first and second receive signals inthe composite signal.
 21. The base station electronics of claim 16wherein the second antenna is a main antenna also used to transmitsignals centered about the first center frequency, and the first antennais a diversity antenna associated with the second antenna, the basestation electronics further comprising circuitry adapted to transmit atransmit signal via the main antenna.
 22. The base station electronicsof claim 16 wherein a plurality of receive signals, including the secondreceive signal, are received and translated to being centered aboutdifferent center frequencies and combined to form the composite signal.23. The base station electronics of claim 16 further comprising in thebase housing: a) transceiver circuitry; and b) separation circuitryadapted to separate the first and second receive signals from thecomposite signal in the base station electronics, wherein the first andsecond receive signals are provided to transceiver circuitry.
 24. Thebase station electronics of claim 23 further comprising, in the basehousing, second translation circuitry adapted to translate the firstreceive signal to being centered about the first center frequency priorto providing the first receive signal to the transceiver circuitry. 25.The base station electronics of claim 24 wherein the second receivesignal is translated to a third center frequency before being combinedwith the first receive signal to form the composite signal, and furthercomprising third translation circuitry adapted to translate the secondreceive signal to being centered about the first center frequency priorto providing the second receive signal to the transceiver circuitry. 26.The base station electronics of claim 16 wherein the first and secondreceive signals correspond to a cellular signal transmitted from acellular communication device.
 27. The base station electronics of claim16 wherein the first and second antennas are associated with one of aplurality of sectors for the base station environment.
 28. The basestation electronics of claim 27 wherein each sector uses one feedercable between the masthead and the base housing.
 29. The base stationelectronics of claim 16 wherein the first center frequency is associatedwith a first cellular band and a fourth center frequency is associated asecond cellular band; a third receive signal centered about a thirdcenter frequency is received via the first input from the first antenna;a fourth receive signal centered about the third center frequency isreceived via the second input from the second antenna, the base stationelectronics in the masthead further comprising second translationcircuitry adapted to translate the third receive signal from the firstantenna to being centered about a fourth center frequency, the combiningcircuitry thither adapted to combine the third receive signal centeredabout the third center frequency and the second receive signal to format least part of the composite signal, which is send to the base housingover the feeder cable.
 30. The base station electronics of claim 29further comprising third translation circuitry adapted to translate thefourth receive signal from the second antenna to being centered aboutthe fourth center frequency, wherein the third receive signal centeredabout the fourth center frequency is combined with the fourth receivesignal centered about the fourth center frequency to form at least partof the composite signal.
 31. A system for combining signals fortransmission between masthead electronics and base housing electronicsin a base station environment, the method comprising: a) means forreceiving a first receive signal centered about a first center frequencyfrom a first antenna; b) means for receiving a second receive signalthat is different from the first receive signal and centered about thefirst center frequency from a second antenna; c) means for translatingthe first receive signal from the first antenna to being centered abouta second center frequency; and d) means for combining the first receivesignal centered about the second center frequency and the second receivesignal to form a composite signal, which is sent to the base housingelectronics over a feeder cable.